Wednesday, August 22, 2012

South Korean singer dedicates song to victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery

Kim Hyun-sung, a well-known local singer-songwriter,
premiered a song dedicated to Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual
enslavement last Wednesday when former sex slaves and some 2,000 of
their supporters gathered in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul for a
weekly protest, demanding an apology and compensation from Tokyo for
its atrocities.

The issue of elderly Korean women forced
into sexual slavery for Japanese troops during World War II, when Korea
was under Japan's colonial rule, has been a long-running grievance
between the neighboring countries. The victims are euphemistically
called "comfort women."

The song is titled "Peace Monument,"
which is also the name of a statue of a young girl in a traditional
Korean dress, sitting on a chair next to another empty chair. It was set
up last December in front of the Japanese Embassy by the former sex
slaves and their supporters to mark the 1,000th weekly "Wednesday
Demonstration."

"After the 'stake terror' incident, I
learned that no songs exist about the girl statue, and decided to record
a song to prevent people from seeing the weekly demonstration as the
usual simple stuff," Kim told Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday, referring
to an incident in which a right-wing Japanese activist placed a wooden
stake with provocative writing beside the statue in June.

The 54-year-old singer said he became particularly interested in the
comfort women issue after visiting South Korea's easternmost islets of
Dokdo in 2008 and 2009.

The sexual enslavement and Dokdo
issues are major huddles in Seoul-Tokyo relations, which have chilled
extensively in recent weeks after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak
made a surprise visit to the rocky outcroppings and pressed Japan to
resolve the comfort women issue.

Kim stressed the needs to
arouse constant public interest in the issues, which have motivated him
to write songs and perform during relevant demonstrations since the
1990s.

"The sex slavery (issue) is shared by Northeast Asia,
as there are many wartime victims in other Asian countries," he said.
"It is also an issue of common interest in the history of man beyond
ideology."

Historians say tens of thousands of Asian women,
mostly Koreans, were forced to work at front-line brothels for Japanese
soldiers during the war.

Kim said he plans to release a
record with more new songs about the historic issues, while guarding
against dealing with them as emotionally or as an one-time event.

"The historic issues are very serious, long-running matters to us,
and we have to deal with them accordingly. I, myself, will pay extra
care, while proactively participating in diverse events for the victims
in the future."